The 2015 Frankie Burgess Memorial Race took place in mid July at the Saginaw County Fairgrounds in Chesaning, Michigan. This was the first 300’ sand drag event to take place at this venue and it showed big potential. The Burgess Family & Friends strived to put on a fun filled event in memory of Frankie and they did just that in front of a great grandstand crowd that turned out despite the warm sunny Michigan summer conditions. Let’s take a look at the action.


Frank Burgess making a nice pass with the Nitrous flowing on Frankie’s Jeep. Frank and the entire Burgess Racing crew did Frankie proud putting a great event in his memory and having fun as he would have wanted.

Quick 8

At this event, it was decided to break off the vehicles in the low 4-second range or faster into their own class. As luck would have it there were a nice round number of eight entries to make for a great Quick 8 class. Mark Mosher would record the quickest ET of the event in time trials recording a 3.404 in the “Gorilla” Blown BBC-powered Funny Jeep. A random ladder was drawn and first round featured some close races. The best race saw Mark Mosher Jr. in the Mosher Tire & Truck Service Dragster running a dead-on 3.783 (3.78) to advance over Randy Dowd.

After round one, the losers from that round came back for a second chance race to make more passes for the crowd. In the second chance race, the final round came down to Randy Dowd in the “Let’s Rock” T-Bucket against Frank Burgess in Frankie’s Jeep. This one was decided at the starting line as Randy turned on the red bulb by .018 giving Frank the win while recording a killer .002 Reaction Time in the process.

The semi-final round of eliminations kicked off with a father-son battle as the Mosher’s Mark Sr. and Jr. paired up. Dad got the bragging rights in this battle as he forced his son’s Dragster into a 3.750 (3.77) breakout with a 3.460 (3.40) after a tenth of a second starting line advantage. The next pair would fight for the right to square off with Mark’s “Gorilla” in the final round. It would be Jake Phaff in the Merchant Automotive Duramax Diesel-powerd Buggy up against Trent Everett Jr. in the Blown Alcohol Sky High II Funny Jeep. This one was a battle with Trent taking a slight starting line advantage, but he would take too much stripe running a 3.686 (3.71) handing the win over to Jake’s 4.164 (4.10).

This would set up a unique final round in the world of sand drag racing between two vastly different race cars; the 4WD Blown Alcohol Funny Jeep of Mosher against the Duramax Diesel-powered Buggy of Phaff. These two are no stranger to the winner’s circle, so everyone knew this would be good. This battle would be decided on the tree as Phaff left .065 too soon handing the win to Mosher, who was ready for action with a .023 light. Congrats to Mark and the Mosher Tire & Truck Service team on the win!


Mark Mosher - Quick 8 Winner


Jake Phaff - Quick 8 Runner-Up


Trent Everett Jr. - Quick 8 3rd Place

Bracket Classes

At this race, the Bracket classes were split in half by dial times with the split being around 5.50. Bracket 1 was filled with some good racing that lead up to the final round between Earl Lechler in the Step Child Chevy Truck against Mike Malachowski in his slick looking Army Jeep. Earl would take the starting line edge with a .102 RT and turn on the win light as he forced Malachowski into a 5.222 (5.25) break out. The Bracket 2 class final round saw an all Jeep final round as the clean Red Jeep of Chris Stam faced off with Brian Jones, who won the Inaugural Frankie Burgess Memorial Race with his White Jeep. Chris was dialed about three tenths of a second slower with a 6.10 dial, but that would not stop him as he drove his red Jeep to the Bracket 2 victory.


Earl Lechler - Bracket 1 Winner


Chris Stam - Bracket 2 Winner

Heads-Up Diesel

Frankie was an avid Diesel Truck enthusiast, so many of his friends and local Diesel Truck guys came out to participate in this category. These guys came to compete with some serious equipment dipping well into the 5 second zone in full size Diesel-powered trucks. The final round was a Dodge versus Chevy matchup with Derek Rose recording Low ET of the class with a 5.351 to take the win for Dodge over Zachary Roggow.


Derek Rose - Heads-Up Diesel Winner

Photos Courtesy NSDN

Event Photo Gallery - Courtesy NSDN

• Earl Lechler Earl Lechler
• Jake Phaff Jake Phaff
• Gary Spitler Gary Spitler
• Steve Huber Steve Huber
• Chris Stam Chris Stam
• Archie Hart Archie Hart
• Jim Kendall Jim Kendall
• Bruce Reinhardt Bruce Reinhardt
• Justine Burgess Justine Burgess
• Mike Malachowski Mike Malachowski
• 
• Lucas Tiley Lucas Tiley
• Earl Lechler Earl Lechler
• Art Caball Art Caball
• Frank Burgess Frank Burgess
• Ryan Anderson Ryan Anderson
• Mike Page Mike Page
• Track Prep Track Prep
• Dave Weaver Dave Weaver
• Randy Dowd Randy Dowd
• Derek Rose Derek Rose
• Diesel Action Diesel Action
• Robert Emmendorfer Robert Emmendorfer
• Robert Emmendorfer Robert Emmendorfer
• Nyle Wieber Nyle Wieber
• Mark Davis Mark Davis
• Mark Mosher Jr. Mark Mosher Jr.
• Zack Malachowski Zack Malachowski
• Anthony Conrad Anthony Conrad
• Trent Everett Jr. Trent Everett Jr.
• Mark Mosher Mark Mosher
• Mosher vs. Mosher Mosher vs. Mosher
• Nyle Wieber Nyle Wieber
• Trent Everett Jr. Trent Everett Jr.
• Mark Mosher Mark Mosher
• Bracket 1 Final Bracket 1 Final
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